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December is here, which usually means that some schools will be sharing The Santa Trap with their students.
The book, written by me and illustrated by Poly Bernatene, is a cautionary tale about the dastardly exploits of Bradley Bartleby, a villainous boy who tries to ambush Santa Claus so that he can steal ALL the presents on Santa’s sleigh.
Although Bradley is clearly a terrible role model for young readers, his antics have provided many schools with inspiration for a wide range of classroom activities that they’ve shared on Twitter including writing …
instructions, …
Our final drafts to ‘Trap Santa’ surely will get the approval of @BradleyBartleby @helenbowen1 #pengeulanway #owls #santatrap pic.twitter.com/lnvVdB537G
— Pengeulan Primary (@Pengeulanpri) December 1, 2021
poems, …
We have been writing our own version of The Santa Trap in year 5, let’s hope Santa reads them before he delivers any socks under the tree this year!@JonathanEmmett@lancsliteracy@BradleyBartleby pic.twitter.com/58GkvyHbCn
— Strike Lane Primary (@StrikeLane) December 7, 2021
wanted posters, …
Can you help? This beastly brat is WANTED! @CTS_Watford @MissPenfoldCTS @MissPhillipsCTS #thesantatrap pic.twitter.com/OdJde8sIIo
— MRS SIBBIT (@MrsSibbitCTS) December 15, 2021
elf reports …
We've written in role as Elves advising Santa to keep Bradley on the naughty list too. pic.twitter.com/LsA87kh9Cv
— Marianne Mitchell (@mazmitchell) December 19, 2018
and word banks.
Possibly the best word bank I've ever written in a lesson. pic.twitter.com/jF040T594w
— Marianne Mitchell (@mazmitchell) December 19, 2018
The book has also provided a prompt for studying mechanical science, …
5J designed their own Santa traps after discussing marvellous mechanisms in science. They used levers, pulleys and gears in their designs and used The Santa trap by @ScribbleStreet for ideas. All groups presented their work brilliantly. @LDSTEducation pic.twitter.com/tjaIQKNbgz
— St Andrews Maghull (@StAndrewsCoE) December 14, 2020
designing traps …
@scribblestreet here are yr 4s Santa Traps as promised. I will try to remember to take some of yr 5/6s this week pic.twitter.com/YIMFXEXCYo
— Jo Clarke (@bookloverJo) December 10, 2018
and building them from recycled materials, …
Year 2F are building their own Santa Trap based on our class text The Santa Trap by @JonathanEmmett 🎄 🎅 We are using our designs to help us with instructional writing later this week! pic.twitter.com/dw3yqeWkMz
— EMPS (@EMCPSNEWCASTLE) December 1, 2021
Lego, …
@BradleyBartleby we created a few of our designs using lego, and these upstarts even recorded an explanation for you! You will notice you are included and hidden to observe all #santatrap #owls pic.twitter.com/QPwJOBfZSh
— Pengeulan Primary (@Pengeulanpri) November 24, 2021
Fiddle Sticks …
Lane students enjoyed visiting the media center to hear the book, The Santa Trap, by Jonathan Emmett. Students then used Fiddle Sticks to build their own Santa traps. pic.twitter.com/7xn6yLX29k
— Mckibben Lane Elementary School (@MckibbenLane) December 13, 2019
and even sweets!
All the specialists read to classrooms yesterday, I called my girl, @PovLibrary Amanda Wall knows all the cool books. My 5th graders loved the Santa Trap and then had fun making candy ones🥰📚🍬🎄@CreedsES pic.twitter.com/FYFvzNdDiQ
— Kelly Dudley (@KellyDudley33) December 11, 2021
I have virtually visited some of the schools that have studied the book.
Thank you @JonathanEmmett for our wonderful Zoom call with you, we were all so inspired by your story and ideas! pic.twitter.com/HB5EMTz9GU
— EMPS (@EMCPSNEWCASTLE) December 8, 2021
And their classroom activities have attracted the attention of Bradley Bartelby, who is always on the lookout for ideas to steal, …
Some very promising ideas here –which I’ll steal to use myself!
— Bradley Bartleby (@BradleyBartleby) December 13, 2018
And I’m definitely going to get myself a “BRADLEY RULES” flag. Every home should have one. https://t.co/Pz4YU4CyQx
assistants to kidnap, …
These kids seem to know how to put a cunning trap together. Perhaps I'll kidnap a few of them and put them to work in my secret workshop at Bartleby Hall.
— Bradley Bartleby (@BradleyBartleby) December 16, 2021
If they do a good job I might let them out on Boxing day. https://t.co/bsAAK7e5E3
and schoolwork to ‘correct’ …
This is incredibly sloppy work from both students and staff. I spotted FOUR huge mistakes in Josephine's opening paragraph that her teacher had failed to correct – so I've done it myself.
— Bradley Bartleby (@BradleyBartleby) December 20, 2018
2/10 Must try harder! pic.twitter.com/UzCnyuodX8
or scoff at!
Another year, another class of upstarts who think they can do better than me at trapping Santa. One of these is using a Dalmatian as a guard dog. That will never work – it's bound to be "spotted"*. 🤣 https://t.co/6QMERA4Gcv
— Bradley Bartleby (@BradleyBartleby) November 23, 2021
Some schools have even tried to trap Bradley.
1D couldn’t believe their eyes this morning when our classroom was trashed. We set our trap for @BradleyBartleby and it just made him more angry!!!
— Year 1 (@DovedaleY1) December 15, 2020
We have sent a warning to Santa... we hope it reaches him in time! #SaveChristmas pic.twitter.com/y6n27Fr9cN
Abbeymead Primary set up Bradely traps in their playground and barricaded the school gate to prevent him getting in.
You can see more tweets form The Siege of Abbeymead in this Twitter thread.
Bradley Bartleby we have been busy building barricades to keep you and your tigers out! pic.twitter.com/x3rDy1J47W
— Abbeymead Primary School (@AbbeymeadPriSch) December 12, 2018
I’m delighted that the book has inspired so much creativity, so if you are using The Santa Trap in your school this December, do let me know!
You can find all these and more tweets from schools and Bradley in this Twitter collection.
And you can download lesson plans for The Santa Trap, created by Herts for Learning here.
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